Monday, September 22, 1997 Welcome to Bohemia PREVIEW:
Here, the best weapon against the powers-that-be is a song.
Welcome to the world of "Rent," and, as fans and cast affirm, to
the ’90s themselves. Jonathan Larson’s musical, based on "La
Boheme," Puccini’s salute to the Bohemian lifestyle, first rocked
Broadway in 1996. Several touring companies, four Tony Awards and a
lot of hype later, "Rent" will take the stage at the Ahmanson
Theater Sept. 28. And Los Angeles will enter the "Rent" world at
last.
So who lives here? Well, there’s Mark, the neurotic filmmaker
(played by Neil Patrick Harris, who once played a certain neurotic
14-year-old doctor). There’s his acting diva ex-girlfriend,
Maureen, and Maureen’s new love, a lawyer named Joanne. There’s his
sullen songwriter roommate, Roger, and Mimi, Roger’s off-and-on
exotic dancer girlfriend. Mark’s former roommates include Benny
(who’s married into a rich family and turned yuppie) and Collins, a
philosophy professor, friend and anarchist. Then there’s Angel,
Collins’s drag queen street musician boyfriend.
Whew. That’s everybody. The ensemble attempts to pursue love and
art as they battle to save their starving artist-friendly apartment
building from being turned into a high-tech cyber-studio.
And cast members can relate to them on many levels. For one,
they’ve all done their share of the struggling-artist thing.
"In college, we were always going through the same things," says
Leigh Hetherington, who plays Maureen. Hetherington left USC
mid-way through her junior year to join the West Coast Company. "We
were always creating, but never having means to show off our
creativity except to each other."
Wilson Cruz, who plays Angel, faced adversity on a harsher
level, spending time on the street before landing the role of Ricky
on "My So-Called Life."
Just as the chorus of homeless people shivering on stage in
"Rent" must hit home for Cruz, so did a Christmas episode of the
television show, where Ricky is thrown out and finds refuge in an
abandoned warehouse.
"That was taken directly from my life," Cruz says. "I had a lot
of say in how that episode came to be and it was really difficult
because we actually filmed it less than a year from the time I was
on the streets. It was actually very therapeutic in the end."
Which brings up another element crucial to "Rent’s" success.
Four of the characters have AIDS. One of them dies. Another nearly
does. As a result, tear-stained faces line the rows of the theater.
For many, this is therapy – a time to mourn their own losses.
Ensemble member Sharon Brown sings "Seasons of Love," a soulful
number that evokes emotional responses when it asks, "How do you
measure a last year on earth?"
"There was this woman right at the beginning of the number who
burst into tears," Brown says. "It just goes beyond performing and
beyond show business. It’s very human and all of a sudden, your
world gets smaller in a good way."
Hetherington says, "Recently I just had a friend come see the
show whose brother had just died of AIDS and we said his brother’s
name during the support group scene (where characters go around the
circle, introducing themselves)."
This is just a patch in the cultural collage that makes "Rent"
stand out among other currently running musicals. "Rent" is not a
period piece – no hoop skirts or turn-of-the-century sensibilities
a la "Ragtime" and "Titanic." "Rent" is more interested in the next
century. "Rent" is almost completely sung-through, the set is
low-budget chic and it has attracted myriad so-called "’Rent’
groupies" – young people who line up for rush tickets three and
four times a week.
The groupies are a loyal crowd, but occasionally bitter in the
light of "Rent’s" popularity.
"It’s like when you find your favorite rock band and you feel
like you’ve discovered it. Then when they get popular, you go,
‘God, everybody knows about it,’" Brown says. She thinks the show’s
influence has, perhaps frighteningly, spilled over into the East
Village itself. "Now people who have nothing to do with art live
there. It’s ‘cool’ you know. ‘I want to be like the ‘Rent’
kids.’"
And it’s understandable. They’re pretty cool kids. Both Cruz and
Hetherington speak of their characters with warmth, intimacy and
enthusiasm.
"It was so obvious that this was the thing. If I was going to do
a musical, this would be the one," Cruz says. He describes Angel as
the glue that holds on-stage friendships together. "How many
opportunities do we get in this lifetime to be that person whom
everyone loves and cares for and who brings such joy and light into
people’s lives?"
The character of Maureen, on the other hand, is self-centered,
melodramatic and rabble-rousing. Her antics provide much of the
potentially heavy show’s comic relief.
"I fell in love with the character," Hetherington says, partly
because she saw a little of herself in Maureen. "When my parents
first heard the CD and at the beginning Benny says ‘How is the
drama queen?’ my dad cracked up and said, ‘Perfect.’"
For some cast members, this is the big break, and while
Hetherington has done musical theater all her life, her bouncy
attitude suggests "Rent" is on a new scale. But – at least before
seeing the show – it’s hard not to think of Harris and Cruz as
Doogie and Ricky.
Once the music begins, though, the spotlight hits Harris’s newly
bleached hair and he hunches over an omnipresent video camera. He’s
Mark, plain and simple. And Cruz, sporting a fuzzy red dress, zebra
print tights and chin length wig, is gloriously, undeniably
Angel.
All three cast members are adamant that the presence of "knowns"
doesn’t dampen the spirit of a musical about unknown artists. Brown
points out that, quirkiness aside, "Rent" is a professional
production.
"You can’t pull somebody off the street because they have blue
hair and say ‘We want to put you in this situation’ where it would
exhaust them," Brown says. And if that production makes money, more
power to it. "Pardon the pun, but rent does have to be paid. It’s
no fun to struggle."
Maybe not, but it’s intriguing to watch the characters do it, as
audiences in New York, Boston and La Jolla have confirmed. Like any
work that has staying power, "Rent" relies on the basics –
universal themes, catchy songs and talent.
Cruz counters the critics who’ve relentlessly compared the West
Coast cast to the original. "These are some singin’ – well, you
know. They are singin’ their butts off. And nobody can walk into
the theater and deny that," Cruz says.
The "Rent" kids are singin’ loud, singin’ their way to Los
Angeles, and the show’s repertoire of more than 30 songs that
lovingly challenge the core of society may make it the musical
heard around the world.